---
title: "Using Forwarders"
canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneDDI/186681858/Using%20Forwarders"
format: markdown
---
<span style="color: #000000">A forwarder is essentially a name server to which all other name servers first send queries that they cannot resolve locally. The forwarder then sends these queries to DNS servers that are external to the network, avoiding the need for the other name servers in your network to send queries off-site. A forwarder eventually builds up a cache of information, which it uses to resolve queries. This reduces Internet traffic over the network and decreases the response time to DNS clients. This is useful in organizations that need to minimize off-site traffic, such as a remote office with a slow connection to a company’s network.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">You can select any external server to function as a forwarder. You can also configure the application to send queries to one or more forwarders.</span>

> ⚠️ ### Note
> ⚠️ 
> ⚠️ <span style="color: #000000">If you have enabled both DNS Forwarding Proxy and Universal DDI DNS services on the same NIOS-X Server, the forwarders configuration you specified in this section will be overwritten by the DNS Forwarding Proxy listening on port 1053, For information about configuring DNS Forwarding Proxy and Universal DDI DNS, see </span><span style="color: #000000">*[Configuring DNS Forwarding Proxy and Universal DDI DNS](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneDDI/pages/186876333)*</span><span style="color: #000000">.</span>

<span style="color: #000000">To configure forwarders for the application, complete the following:</span>

1. From the Infoblox Portal, click **Network** > <span style="color: #000000">**DNS**</span>, and click <span style="color: #000000">**Global DNS Configuration**</span>.
2. <span style="color: #000000">In the </span><span style="color: #000000">*Global DNS Configuration*</span> <span style="color: #000000">page, click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Recursion.**</span>
3. <span style="color: #000000">In the </span><span style="color: #000000">**Recursion**</span><span style="color: #000000"> section, click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Allow recursion**</span><span style="color: #000000"> > </span><span style="color: #000000">**Add**</span><span style="color: #000000"> to add or click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Remove**</span><span style="color: #000000"> to remove the entries under the </span><span style="color: #000000">**FORWARDERS**</span><span style="color: #000000"> section, and enter an IP address in the </span><span style="color: #000000">**ADDRESS **</span><span style="color: #000000">column. The field supports only IPv4 values. Select the respective checkbox and click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Remove **</span><span style="color: #000000">to remove a forwarder.</span>
4. <span style="color: #000000">To use only forwarders on your network (and not root servers), select the </span><span style="color: #000000">**Forward Only**</span><span style="color: #000000"> checkbox.</span>
5. <span style="color: #000000">If you know that the forwarder forwards queries to a DNS Forwarding Proxy, then you can pass the client’s IP, MAC addresses, and DNS view information to that forwarder, for per-client reporting. To add these details to the outgoing recursive queries, select the </span><span style="color: #000000">**Add client IP, Mac Address, and DNS View information to outgoing recursive queries **</span><span style="color: #000000">checkbox. Unless the forwarder is known to forward to a DNS Forwarding Proxy, this check box must not be selected since the passed client information is privacy sensitive. In particular, this check box must not be selected if the forwarder is an external public DNS service.</span>
6. <span style="color: #333300">In case you need to specify a forwarder IP instead of recursing to the Internet root DNS servers, you can choose the option </span><span style="color: #333300">**Use these forwarders for local NIOS-X Server resolution (when deployed alongside BloxOne Threat Defense)**</span><span style="color: #333300">.  These DNS Forwarders will be used in lieu of recursing to the Internet root name servers. This configuration is helpful in situations where access to the root servers is restricted. </span>
7. <span style="color: #000000">Click </span><span style="color: #000000">**Save & Close**</span><span style="color: #000000"> to save.</span>

> ⚠️ ### Note
> ⚠️ 
> ⚠️ <span style="color: #000000">If a DNS Forwarding Proxy is enabled and no policy is configured, selecting </span><span style="color: #000000">**Use these forwarders for local NIOS-X Server resolution (when deployed alongside BloxOne Threat Defense) check box **</span><span style="color: #000000">may result in a SERFAIL error when responding to DNS queries.</span>